Ranya is a girl with imagination and a fair mix of logic, she wants to pursue her dream to be an astronomer and writes short stories as her hobbies. She wants a life that a person should remember and learn from. she believes in that life is a journey, not a destination.

For a second I closed my eyes, probably at midnight from the heaviness of my eyelids and opened them at about nine in the morning. I woke up to the sound of our doorbell. I ran to get it because the maid was cooking and my mom was working. As I opened, I wondered, who it could be? It was most likely to be one of my friends. My prediction was proven correct. It was one of my friends, more specifically Rohan. Since it was a Saturday I was allowed to play all day long, until we had to leave. Leave for Australia that is…

I asked Rohan to wait for me to get ready. It was probably the fastest I had gotten ready in my life! In about ten minutes or less. Rohan dared me to race him down the stairs because he knew I was slower than him. I took the elevator instead. We counted till three with me already inside the elevator and him at the first step of floor eight. And we were off!

Part 1

I was wishing that no-one would stop the elevator on my way down. But there was a more worrying thought. I was pretty sure he had a trick for winning. Even though I was absolutely certain that he was going faster, he wanted to make it completely obvious. I was about 99% sure what he was going to do. He pressed the elevator button at floor number five and waited for the lift to arrive. When it did, the door slid open. My hypothesis was proven correct when he waved at me and ran down the stairs again. I was pressing the button to make the door close. My finger went pink. When I reached, he was waving at me standing downstairs. I was covering his bragging and everything else, by saying things like, “He cheated” and “You are so evil, you didn’t win, the elevator is faster.” He was also covering up for what I was saying.

We went to another friend, Hritika. When we went to her house, we felt her strength as she pushed the door. The door slammed open and the expressions on her face changed all the way from frown to smile. We greeted each other and ran to call yet another friend, Ashrita, from her house to play.

We were going to follow the usual routine. We went to Rohan’s house and got his reptile box, in which he kept the new reptiles he found and let them out by the end of the day! He grabbed it while we were waiting with embarrassment outside. We hadn’t yet taken our shoes off. Rohan got the reptile and we went down the lift to reach the central park. We were looking for our weekly lizard but couldn’t find one. Instead, we found a gecko! It was extremely difficult to find larger creatures than a spider, except humans of course. We carefully placed it in the box and took it back to Rohan’s house.

this time we all ran up the stairs instead of taking the elevator. On the way, we made fun of each other and raced up. Mostly it was a draw, but I got a few wins. By the time we were on the seventh floor, we were incredibly tired. But we didn’t give in. We climbed to the ninth floor, and we were famished. We all didn’t drink water for more than a few hours.

We thought that we could have a sip at Rohan’s house as it was closest. So we went there for a drink. We leapt up, with all the energy we still had stored.

The lift stopped at the eighth floor, and a few other kids came in. They spoke about their vacation plans. Soon we came back to the ground floor, with the lizard we caught in the park. We kept it in the box and played with it. Rohan had held it out for us and asked us to touch it. I went last, hesitantly. It felt sort of scaly and wet, and while we were touching the lizard, a lot of the other kids in the building came surrounding us. A lot of the kids asked if they could touch it as well.

We had lots of fun, but we made sure no one cut the tail. In the end, we realised that some of the kids we were playing with were the ones that were ‘it’! We ran to Rohan’s place to keep the lizard back in his box.

We saw them again, on the sixth floor, coming towards us! It looked like they had no idea we were there. We ran for it, avoiding anything we might have used to catch others if we were ‘it’.

Part 2

We ran down to the eighth floor when I had an idea. We could hide in my house! Though we reasoned that by the time we reached the stairs, they would be there too. So we went all the way to the fourth floor and up to the sixth in a complicated pattern in which we could have just roamed around there and we wouldn’t have been caught. When we finally went to the eighth floor we checked if they saw us. Fortunately, they were out of sight. When we reached my house, nervously l rang the bell, hoping that they didn’t hear. It was dead silent for few seconds; then my mom opened the door. l heard a sigh of relief from all of us. That moment I remembered that they can just look at the front door of every house and our shoes would tell them all. So I told them to take off their shoes inside.

We had a lot of fun. We took all of the blankets in my room and acted like we were hiking a mountain and Rohan was a ghost, which was going to haunt us. It had been a while when someone rang the bell.

Part 2

I edged towards the door when Ashrita said in a whisper, “Don’t open it!” Everyone nodded. That was when the person outside said, “Don’t act like you are not there Ranya. I know you are there!” It sounded like Hritika.

I opened the door slowly, but only a little. She said, “I know everyone else is in your house, please let me come in.”

I bent in a way that it looked like I was tired of standing in a position where only my head was visible. I looked at my friends they had wired look on their face when I shook my hand asking them something. They shook their sideways at the same time. Quickly I came back in sight. Hritika luckily didn’t question anything that was happening. Although her expressions screamed, ‘Drop the act!’

My face was screaming ‘I am so faking this!’

So sighed hard I let her in.

But no one was that sad. This time Hritika and Rohan were the ghosts. We were halfway there till the ending when my friends said, ‘We better be going.’ They left leaving me with Rohan and Hritika. He said, ‘You know I can bring my sister here.’

That was a very good idea. He called his sister and I stayed with Hritika. When Rohan and his little sister, Hannah came, we saw there was a lizard in the house. We screamed! Not from fear but from excitement. My parents came rushing from their rooms to check on us. My dad screamed at the sight of the lizard. I thought it was from those primal instincts of keeping our family safe. But then he just slammed his door shut as we stared at the door. My mom slowly opened the door and went in. We stared at the door; you could hear us breathe. My dad was standing on top of the bed.

I just asked Rohan to take the lizard out and he did. We stared at him with great admiration. When he went to keep it back, I was left with Hritika. We decided to play a smart prank. We had been to an academy at summer vacation from where we picked up a few tricks. When they came back, they asked us why we looked like we murdered someone! Well, the bet was that I am faster than a calculator but only in one skill. That is, adding 10 random numbers but those random numbers have to be from a Fibonacci sequence. To make it more interesting, I didn’t tell them anything about it. Hritika was just smirking behind them because she was with me in it.

We asked them to choose two numbers and add them and then add a new number and the previous one. The numbers 2…4…6…10…16…26…42…68…110…and 178 were written on a piece of paper that I gave them now. I brought my mom’s phone and offered them to show me the paper, while they were calculating. I could add them before they could even type all of them. Rohan was very fast with his hands. I looked at the paper and yelled, the answer is 462! After a while he finished typing those numbers; the calculator said 462! Rohan now owed me two pieces of candy and Hannah owed me three. Hritika and I were jumping with joy. We were correct and we won the bet. Rohan and Hannah were laughing that we beat them and asked us how did we do it! We said in a mysterious tone, “A magician never reveals his secrets.”

For a second I closed my eyes, probably at midnight from the heaviness of my eyelids and opened them at about nine in the morning. I woke up to the sound of our doorbell. I ran to get it because the maid was cooking and my mom was working. As I opened, I wondered, who it could be? It was most likely to be one of my friends. My prediction was proven correct. It was one of my friends, more specifically Rohan. Since it was a Saturday I was allowed to play all day long, until we had to leave. Leave for Australia that is…

I asked Rohan to wait for me to get ready. It was probably the fastest I had gotten ready in my life! In about ten minutes or less. Rohan dared me to race him down the stairs because he knew I was slower than him. I took the elevator instead. We counted till three with me already inside the elevator and him at the first step of floor eight. And we were off!

I was wishing that no-one would stop the elevator on my way down. But there was a more worrying thought. I was pretty sure he had a trick for winning. Even though I was absolutely certain that he was going faster, he wanted to make it completely obvious. I was about 99% sure what he was going to do. He pressed the elevator button at floor number five and waited for the lift to arrive. When it did, the door slid open. My hypothesis was proven correct when he waved at me and ran down the stairs again. I was pressing the button to make the door close. My finger went pink. When I reached, he was waving at me standing downstairs. I was covering his bragging and everything else, by saying things like, “He cheated” and “You are so evil, you didn’t win, the elevator is faster.” He was also covering up for what I was saying.

We went to another friend, Hritika. When we went to her house, we felt her strength as she pushed the door. The door slammed open and the expressions on her face changed all the way from frown to smile. We greeted each other and ran to call yet another friend, Ashrita, from her house to play.

We were going to follow the usual routine. We went to Rohan’s house and got his reptile box, in which he kept the new reptiles he found and let them out by the end of the day! He grabbed it while we were waiting with embarrassment outside. We hadn’t yet taken our shoes off. Rohan got the reptile and we went down the lift to reach the central park. We were looking for our weekly lizard but couldn’t find one. Instead, we found a gecko! It was extremely difficult to find larger creatures than a spider, except humans of course. We carefully placed it in the box and took it back to Rohan’s house.

this time we all ran up the stairs instead of taking the elevator. On the way, we made fun of each other and raced up. Mostly it was a draw, but I got a few wins. By the time we were on the seventh floor, we were incredibly tired. But we didn’t give in. We climbed to the ninth floor, and we were famished. We all didn’t drink water for more than a few hours.

We thought that we could have a sip at Rohan’s house as it was closest. So we went there for a drink. We leapt up, with all the energy we still had stored.

The lift stopped at the eighth floor, and a few other kids came in. They spoke about their vacation plans. Soon we came back to the ground floor, with the lizard we caught in the park. We kept it in the box and played with it. Rohan had held it out for us and asked us to touch it. I went last, hesitantly. It felt sort of scaly and wet, and while we were touching the lizard, a lot of the other kids in the building came surrounding us. A lot of the kids asked if they could touch it as well.

We had lots of fun, but we made sure no one cut the tail. In the end, we realised that some of the kids we were playing with were the ones that were ‘it’! We ran to Rohan’s place to keep the lizard back in his box.

We saw them again, on the sixth floor, coming towards us! It looked like they had no idea we were there. We ran for it, avoiding anything we might have used to catch others if we were ‘it’.

I edged towards the door when Ashrita said in a whisper, “Don’t open it!” Everyone nodded. That was when the person outside said, “Don’t act like you are not there Ranya. I know you are there!” It sounded like Hritika.

I opened the door slowly, but only a little. She said, “I know everyone else is in your house, please let me come in.”

I bent in a way that it looked like I was tired of standing in a position where only my head was visible. I looked at my friends they had wired look on their face when I shook my hand asking them something. They shook their sideways at the same time. Quickly I came back in sight. Hritika luckily didn’t question anything that was happening. Although her expressions screamed, ‘Drop the act!’

My face was screaming ‘I am so faking this!’

So sighed hard I let her in.

But no one was that sad. This time Hritika and Rohan were the ghosts. We were halfway there till the ending when my friends said, ‘We better be going.’ They left leaving me with Rohan and Hritika. He said, ‘You know I can bring my sister here.’

That was a very good idea. He called his sister and I stayed with Hritika. When Rohan and his little sister, Hannah came, we saw there was a lizard in the house. We screamed! Not from fear but from excitement. My parents came rushing from their rooms to check on us. My dad screamed at the sight of the lizard. I thought it was from those primal instincts of keeping our family safe. But then he just slammed his door shut as we stared at the door. My mom slowly opened the door and went in. We stared at the door; you could hear us breathe. My dad was standing on top of the bed.

I just asked Rohan to take the lizard out and he did. We stared at him with great admiration. When he went to keep it back, I was left with Hritika. We decided to play a smart prank. We had been to an academy at summer vacation from where we picked up a few tricks. When they came back, they asked us why we looked like we murdered someone! Well, the bet was that I am faster than a calculator but only in one skill. That is, adding 10 random numbers but those random numbers have to be from a Fibonacci sequence. To make it more interesting, I didn’t tell them anything about it. Hritika was just smirking behind them because she was with me in it.

We asked them to choose two numbers and add them and then add a new number and the previous one. The numbers 2…4…6…10…16…26…42…68…110…and 178 were written on a piece of paper that I gave them now. I brought my mom’s phone and offered them to show me the paper, while they were calculating. I could add them before they could even type all of them. Rohan was very fast with his hands. I looked at the paper and yelled, the answer is 462! After a while he finished typing those numbers; the calculator said 462! Rohan now owed me two pieces of candy and Hannah owed me three. Hritika and I were jumping with joy. We were correct and we won the bet. Rohan and Hannah were laughing that we beat them and asked us how did we do it! We said in a mysterious tone, “A magician never reveals his secrets.”